I made the girls matching sweaters. I used about 2 skeins of KnitPicks Brava.  (Making each sweater cost about $6 to knit!)

…then we had a tea party!

On December 18, our 2000 Toyota Corolla was stolen. This is a car that I inherited from my mother when I moved back to the States from Germany in 2005.  Even though it was 5 years old, she’d only driven it about 40,000 miles, basically to work and back.  The car was pristine.  Like new.

Having the car meant everything to me.  I could commute to my job (working as a post-doctoral researcher at NMSU.)  Soon my daughter was born, and we installed a cute little pink car seat.  Then 2 years later, we installed a second little pink car seat for our second daughter.

Now, at 12 years old and about 80,000 miles (we still just used it as a commuter car, no drag racing, no cross-country trips) it’s been stolen.

We reported the car to our insurance company, who told us that in 2 – 4 weeks, we’d either have the car found and fixed and back in our hands, OR have a check to replace it.  We’re talking 2000 Corolla here, max check would have been about $5500.  Not enough for a new car, but enough for a down payment on something safe for the girls.

The Monday after New Year’s the police told us that they’d found it. Yay! (We thought.)

The car has a dent in the side, cigarette burns throughout, won’t accelerate out of first gear without the gas pedal to the floor, the windows won’t go up and down, the windshield is a mass of spider cracks, and it reeks of smoke (cigarette and otherwise.)

OK, we thought, they’ll either just total it out (surely all of this will cost more in time and money to fix than the car is worth?) OR fix it and return it.  IF they can get the car into the same condition and IF it’s safe and non-smoky for my kids, ok.

It’s been 8 weeks.  We still have no car. The claim has ben mis-handled by the adjustor in every instance from not including us on the initial walk – around to not ordering parts (or making sure that they’ve been ordered.)

I’ve been trying to reach someone at the insurance company to make them aware of what’s happening with absolutely no luck.  I have been accused of everything from damaging and ditching the car myself to being irate & hysterical.  The company tells me that there’s a “chain of command” complaint process and so far, it’s been possible only to complain to the local office that’s been mis-handling this claim the whole time. (What effect do you imagine that this has on my relationship with them and on their service to my car?)

SO, after all of this is said and done, I will be switching insurance companies to one where I can go into an office and speak to an agent.  Where my agent knows my name and cares what happens to me and to my family.  I am so disappointed.  I’m tired of the anxiety of not knowing what will happen, of feeling like I’m out of line for being angry, and for being treated like a criminal, or like I’m trying to take advantage of this company.

I’ve been a loyal customer since 2005, have paid my premiums on time every month. This process is affecting my life, my job, my sleep, my family, and I feel just helpless.  It’s been a horrible, awful process.

The theft itself was awful, but I’m over that.

Now that I’m back at work every day, I make it a point to do creative, educational things with the kids on the weekends.  Some weekends that entails making cookies or crafting decorations out of felt and googley eyes.  Other weekends it means going to try to find a bit of nature (not hard, here in CO) and just walk around.

One of our FAVORITE things to do is go to the Denver Children’s Museum.  The girls love to paint and here they get to not only paint as many pictures as they want to but also decorate them with feathers, stickers, and other fun stuff.

They also make rockets that launch in a stream of air, tap dance, play with bubbles, and work at a pretend restaurant. We are also currently looking at preschools for Mazie.  I’m hoping that we find something less college-prep and more learning-through-creative-play. Playing with the girls at home and at the museum, I’ve seen how much they absorb and learn about the world at this age just through experimenting and exploring.  There will be plenty of time later for calculus.

2011 has been good to me in many ways, but it’s also been crazy! If it wasn’t for these two little ones, I’d probably be questioning my ability to hold it together.

We moved.

I started a new job & Nathan ended his job to stay home with the kids.

Our car was recently stolen. (No resolution, still just waiting to see what happens.)

We’re trying to sell our old house (Under contract, waiting to close.)

While lots of the events above are terrific, they still add up to a lot of stress!

In fact, I took this online stress test and scored over 300 points.  That’s a lot of change.

SO, as the year rolls over to 2012, I hope for a peaceful, quiet, uneventful 2012.

Firstly, let me apologize for being such an infrequent poster! My “nice camera” died and I’ve been trying to see if I can have it fixed or figure out how to download all of the stuff to reset it, but haven’t had any luck.  The local shops don’t deal with digital stuff like this, and Canon wants to walk me through a whole troubleshooting process before they’ll let me send it in.  Canon has nice late hours, but I go home from work, get my kids in bath & bed, and it’s too late to call.  This has been going on for WEEKS.  Camera’s 4 years old and I may just end up writing it off and ordering a new one.  It’s a shame how disposable electronics seem to be these days!

Any way, I’ve made yet another Boyfriend Cardigan.  Since my camera’s broken, I wore it to work today and Jenn Tomaszewski (talented Customer Service Expert and Photographer) took a few pics.  Looking back at the photos felt like I was in the 360-degree mirror on What Not to Wear.  I will likely not wear this ensemble (shirt, skirt, tights) again.  BUT, the sweater looks good.

I made this one out of Cascade Ecological Wool, which is a great substitute for the O-wool that I made the original with.  (I actually have a sweater’s worth of Gorgeous O-wool in Saffron that I’m planning to knit a THIRD Boyfriend Cardigan with.)**

The only mods I made were to add bust darts, use contrasting wool on the trims, and to add a few more buttons up the front.  I LOVE how this came out.  Every time I wear it, I get SO many compliments!  It’s got a really nice, rustic look that I’m finding myself really drawn to this winter.

I’ve been trying out eco / organic wools on my last few projects because I have eczema on my fingertips, and I think that the dyes & stabilizers in non-eco wool are really making it worse.  Some yarns are so bad that my hands are bleeding after just a few hours of knitting.  I can use both O-wool and this Cascade Eco Wool without much issue.  I’m on the lookout for yarns that are truly wonderful & gentle on the hands, so if you have any suggestions, please comment and let me know!

**NOTE: This is a teaser for the upcoming Shapely Boyfriend Knit-Along that I’m planning for after the New Year!